Category Archives: Crowdfunding

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The Knight of Wands–and $6,000!

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Here’s assemblage 23 (heh) for the Tarot of Bones–the Knight of Wands! Domestic turkey bones and feathers stand in for their wild cousins, but they make a fancy appearance nonetheless. I chose the American turkey as the emblem of this card because the males, like so many other male animals, will proudly strut their stuff and put forth a lot of effort just to win the attention of the females in the group. In the same way, the Knight of Wands is a flashy, showy character with a lot of drive to get what he wants.

Unfortunately, that drive and single-mindedness can sometimes be the downfall of the Knight–and the turkey. All that pomp can be distracting for the one putting it on, and the showy one may be so determined in his task that he may make other mistakes. In the case of the Knight of Wands it may be sloppy performance at work or other goals. For the turkey, it could mean not noticing the hunter off in the bushes.

Like this assemblage piece? Want to see it and the rest become a usable tarot set? If you haven’t backed the Tarot of Bones IndieGoGo campaign already, now’s a great opportunity! We just reached $6,000 yesterday–that means it’s 120% funded! But there’s still 35 days to go, and you still have lots of nifty perk packages to choose from. All that funding helps me make sure the Tarot of Bones comes out on time.

So head over here to back the campaign, and tell anyone you know who may be interested in supporting this project!

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Announcing the First Tarot of Bones IndieGoGo Stretch Goal!

Can you believe it? We funded the Tarot of Bones IndieGoGo campaign in its first 100 hours!   Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who chipped in, whether by backing the campaign or spreading the word or being moral support through this crazy week. So now that we’ve got our first $5,000 (and change) what’s next? This:

Allow me to announce our first stretch goal:

If the Tarot of Bones IndieGoGo campaign gets to $7000 before it ends, I will add a Happy Squirrel card to the official Tarot of Bones deck and book.

What’s the Happy Squirrel card? It’s something of an in-joke among tarot fans, stemming from a 1995 episode of The Simpsons.

Here’s more of an explanation

.The $5000 already covers my materials for the assemblages, with a little left over to put toward printing/shipping, perk fulfillment and other administrative costsIf we get to $7000, I will have more administrative funding, and I’ll make a Happy Squirrel assemblage piece to be included as the 79th card in the deck.We’re already at a little over $5700–let’s see how fast you can make me have to come up with the next stretch goal!

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Your Feedback is Requested!

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Happy Friday, everyone! As you can see, we are 92% funded ($4614 as of this update!) at the Tarot of Bones IndieGoGo campaign!

Between people getting their paychecks today, tax refunds coming in, and the Tarot of Bones party in Portland tonight, it’s pretty likely we’ll be fully funded by the end of the day.

Which means we’re about to head into the wild territory of stretch goals! To be very honest, I never thought I’d have to actually implement them. $5,000 feels like a lot of money to raise at the beginning of your very first crowdfunding campaign, and I wouldn’t have imagined we’d blast past that initial goal in less than a week. But here we are, with 40 days still left in the campaign.

$5,000 may seem like a lot of money, but keep in mind that over half of it is already earmarked for the materials I need to complete the rest of the assemblage pieces for the Tarot of Bones. Everything else I raise needs to be carefully balanced between printing, shipping and other costs directly related to the deck and book, and fulfilling your perks like leather pouches, prints, and copies of my other books. (Again, this is why this is one of multiple funding sources for this project, not the sole source.)

Any perks I add for stretch goals need to keep these existing costs in mind. That being said, I still want to celebrate the amazing success of this campaign! I already have a few ideas for incentives for hitting stretch goals (Happy Squirrel card, anyone?), and I’d love to hear your ideas, too! So–whaddya want?

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New Pentacles, and an IndieGoGo Update

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Hey, all! So it’s been a heck of a week! I got through a quadruple-booked weekend, then experienced a hard drive crash on my main desktop, then developed a respiratory infection. Despite all that, I managed to complete two more assemblage pieces–the Two and Three of Pentacles.

The Two is one of my favorite cards in general because I resonate with it so much. It’s the concept of balancing responsibilities and obligations, and as someone who’s got a lot of projects and events on my plate, maintaining that balance is tricky at times. Like the bones in the assemblage piece, some of these responsibilities have more weight than others at any given time, but the scale can also tip in the other direction, too.

The Three was a more challenging card to create. I am inspired a fair bit by the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, and the Three of Pentacles in that deck involves a young architect consulting with church officials on a holy building’s construction. I really like the card’s associations with collaboration, though, so I thought of the three vertebrae as scaffolding to build the stone structure around the outside. The fossilized ammonite at the top is the keystone just laid into place, representing a successful completion of the project.

So–IndieGoGo news! In just a couple of days the campaign has reached $3,827–which means it’s 77% funded!!! I have been absolutely stunned by this; I was not expecting this much positive response to the Tarot of Bones. I’m not complaining, mind you! Just the opposite; I’m exceptionally grateful to all of you who have funded the campaign, and everyone who has passed the link on to other people.

And just as a reminder, those of you in the Portland, OR area are welcome to join me at my Tarot of Bones party at Paxton Gate! It’ll be this Friday from 6pm – 8pm – more information here.

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The Tarot of Bones IndieGoGo Campaign is Live!!!

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AAAAAAAAAND HERE IT IS!!!!! THE TAROT OF BONES INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN IS LIVE!!!!!!

The URL is https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-tarot-of-bones

Here’s your chance to get THE best price for the Tarot of Bones deck and book set (due out Summer 2016), AND get lots of neat perks! What kinds of perks?

  • A handmade (by me!) leather pouch for your Tarot of Bones deck
  • Copies of my other books on paganism and nature spirituality
  • Prints of select cards
  • Original assemblage pieces used in the creation of the Tarot of Bones
  • A thank you in the Tarot of Bones book and website
  • Other perks to be revealed if we meet the goal of $5,000 and get into stretch goal territory

Plus you’ll be helping me acquire the rest of the materials I need to complete the card art as well as offset some of the other costs. While this isn’t my only source of funding, the campaign will help me stick to my production schedule for the project.

What is the Tarot of Bones? It is a natural history-themed divination set I am creating. I’m making 78 permanent assemblage pieces, one for each of the cards, featuring animal bones and other natural and reclaimed materials. These assemblages will then be photographed for the card art, and the deck will be released with a full-length companion book (not just the little white booklet). You can find out more about it and see photos of completed assemblage pieces at the official Tarot of Bones website.

And if you’re in the vicinity of Portland, OR, don’t forget about the Tarot of Bones party at Paxton Gate this Friday evening from 6pm – 8pm! You can see some of the assemblages on display, listen to me talk about the project, and sign up to back the IndieGoGo campaign! More information can be found here.

For just $5 you can help make the Tarot of Bones a reality! And even if you can’t contribute, please reblog/reweet/share the IndieGoGo campaign so others have the opportunity to be a part of it all! And many, many thanks for your support and help 🙂